High voltage mercury arrester



NOV. 15, 1932. R M|T$UDA HIGH VOLTAGE MERCURY ARRESTER ATTGRNEYSD Patented Nov. 15, 1932 PATENT OFFICE RYOTARO MITSUDA, OF TOKYO, JAPAN HIGH VOLTAGE MERCURY ARRESTER Application filed May 17, 1930, Serial No. 453,285, and in Japan May 22, 1929.

vide a compacted and simplified, yet exceedo between adjacent discs.

ingly high-capacity lightning arrester adapted to function with any voltage. It is peculiarly well fitted for high-voltage and highdischarge devices in which the voltage has a tendency to drop suddenly.

My improved device is shown in the accompanying drawing, in which Fig. 1 is a composite view, part (ai) showing one of the elements in top plan, part (b) showing this element in longitudinal crosssection, and part (c) being a bottom view.

Fig. 2 is a central longitudinal section showing two of the discs of Fig. 1 assembled to form the complete device.

The present invention consists essentially of a pile of discs for generating in vacuo, a plurality of mercury arcs in series. The discs are so shaped as to cause the mercury arcs to arise in series steps in each disc and to zigzag The construction and operation are very simple, but the pile has greater capacity than corresponding types.

As shown in the drawing the discs are made of some insulating material such as glass or porcelain, and in these discs 1, 2, 3 are mercury pools; 4, 5 are damming walls therefor; 6, 7, 8 are walls projecting from the back to form intercepting walls fitting into the mer- 'f cury pools; and 9 is a hole for causing the mercury arcs to zigzag between discs, and also serves as an outlet for mercury. The height of the damming walls varies down gradually from the outermost to the innermost, so that the mercury pools stand in downwardly sloping steps when the disc is filled with mercury. As shown in Fig. 2, when a plurality of individual discs made as in Fig. 1 are piled up opposite-ended, the hole 9 of one comes over the mercury pool 1 of the next lower disc, and the intercepting walls 7 and 8 come in the middle of the mercury pools 2 and 3 of the lower disc, touching the surface of the mercury.

When voltage is impressed on the device, a

hole 9, and so on, establishing and complet- 6 ing the discharge-path. In this Way, the lightning-discharge is accommodated and the lightning-discharge voltage becoming weaker and weaker until finally the lightning is dissipated.

By piling up a number of the present discs alternately one upon another, as shown in Fig. 2, and enclosing them in such a manner as to form a simple vacuum chamber, or by initially casting or otherwise forming them integral so as to form a vacuum-cylinder, the present arrester devices, though giving rise to a multiplicity of mercury arcs in small compass and in series, can be cheaply manufactured on a large scale by a considerably simplified process, yet provide an arrester which has great discharge capacity and is applicable to any high voltage.

Having thus described my invention what I claim is 1. A mercury-arc arrester, comprising a plurality of superimposed disc-like mercurycontainers, and means therein for causing the discharge arc to pass along each separate, component disc in a series of steps and to pass from disc to disc in zigzag form.

2. In a mercury-arc arrester of the class described, a mercury-containing disc having a plurality of concentric damming walls on one face, a plurality of concentric intercepting walls projecting from the opposite face, and an aperture through the center of the concentric intercepting walls.

RYOTARO MITSUDA. 

